Dr. Conrad Murray has become increasingly grim:Michael Jackson's death

Since Michael Jackson's death, the picture emerging of Dr. Conrad Murray has become increasingly grim.

Strapped for cash, the physician left his low-income patients and signed on as Jackson's personal physician for $150,000 a month, only to become a target of a manslaughter investigation amid reports he injected the pop icon with a powerful anesthesia the night before his death.

But to those who have long known him and been his patients in Texas and Nevada, the 56-year-old doctor from Grenada is no Hollywood Dr. Feelgood. He's a hero, a lifesaver. For these people, the drumbeat of news reports has been met with bafflement and anger. In one section of Houston, Murray is credited with bringing a medical facility where others dared not go. He volunteered to teach elementary school and cared so much about his patients that he offered to do video conferences with them when he couldn't personally attend to them.

In 2000, Murray opened Global Cardiovascular Associates in Las Vegas just east of the Strip, where his clientele spanned the Vegas caste system from the less fortunate to, patients say, several unidentified officials in Vegas government.

"I looked forward to going to see him because he was very warm, very good-hearted," Las Vegas patient Donna Digiacomo told PEOPLE just days after discovering her doctor was the man in the middle of the Jackson media circus. "He's not getting a fair shake at this. He's the most beautiful man you would ever know."

Humble Beginnings

Although his name will forever be associated with the King of Pop, it wasn't always glitz and glamour for Murray. Until the age of 7, he was raised by his grandparents, both of whom were farmers in Grenada. He later moved to Trinidad and Tobago to be with his mother. A hard worker, Murray bought his first house at 19, a home he would later sell and use the profits from to put himself through college. It wasn't until he was 25 when he finally met his father, who was also a doctor.

Following in his father's footsteps, Murray headed for medical school, at predominantly African-American Meharry Medical College in Nashville. Murray eventually opened a practice in Houston, the Acres Homes Heart and Vascular Institute.

"We have been so lucky to have Dr. Murray and that clinic in this community," Houston patient Ruby Mosley told PEOPLE. "There are many, many patients that thank God this man was here for them." Mosely said there are even prayer rituals for Murray in the community.
From:www.people.com